Police battle with barricaded man in Trenton

TRENTON — A group of Trenton police officers successfully ended a potentially dangerous situation involving a man who had barricaded himself in a bedroom Sunday afternoon.

Police were detailed to the 300 block of Walnut Avenue on reports of a man yelling to two relatives in the home that he was going to commit suicide. A lone patrolman was the first officer on scene, where it was discovered that the man was not suicidal. The family members and officer attempted to calm the man down, but he remained verbally abuse and it was soon apparent he would have to be taken to the Crisis Center at the Capital Health Regional Medical Center. Backup soon arrived for the first responding officer and the man, who police did not identify because he was not arrested, ran down a hallway and barricaded himself a bedroom, slamming the door shut.

“This was a pretty big guy, he was about 6’1 to 6’2 and about 270 pounds,” one officer with knowledge of the incident, but declined to be identified said.

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The officer said that in previous incidents like this, one could call the Tactical Anti-Crime unit in because of their training and experience in similar situations, but it had been disbanded in December with its members moved to patrol, so that was not an option. Instead, the officers had to chose between taking matters into their own hands or calling in an entry team from the New Jersey State Police. While a few officers stayed behind at the home, others scrambled back to TPD headquarters to get what police call a “body bunker,” a ballistic shield used for risky entry situations.

Back at the home, police determined that the man was probably not armed, which was why they chose not to call state police, which the police source said could have prolonged the incident to the point where it lasted hours instead of minutes while waiting for an entry team. In addition to being not entirely sure if this man was unarmed, the bedroom was at the end of a narrow hallway and the door opened outwards instead of inwards, making kicking the door in a challenge, but they had to get the man out.

“We told the family ‘it wasn’t going to be pretty, but we’ll get him out,” the officer said.

The officers forced their way into the bedroom where the unarmed man was apprehended and sent to Capital Health without incident. During the 15-minute encounter, neither the man who barricaded himself in the bedroom nor the officers involved sustained any injuries.